U87 cells

>"Jennifer Robertson" <jrobertson1 at sympatico.ca> wrote in message
>news:9cFs7.9945$%r.2819216 at news20.bellglobal.com...>> Has anyone ever cultured U87 cells? I think mine are behaving strangely,
>> however the ATCC site doesn't give much information about them. Mine seem
>to
>> clump before even reaching 50% confluence. Even when I suspended and
>> replated them at about 70% confluence the cells settled and clumped again.
>> Is this normal for this cell line? I know i'm seperating the clumps well
>as
>> I triturate the begeezus out of them and I can see that its all seperated.
>>>> Any input would be appreciated.
Jennifer,
U87 just happened to be my "favorite" line, and I had the same concern
when I started working with it two years ago. This behavior is so
different from other GBM cells, that I started worrying and asking
people from different institutions to send me a vial of their "breed"
of U87.
ALL of them start growing spheroids once they are a little more than
50% confluent. The only thing you can do is not to plate more than
5-6M per 100-mm dish and use them for your experiments within next
couple of days. They are also very hard to stably transfect, since the
working concentration range of selection agents is very narrow. For
example, you might not get much selection at 200 mkg/ml G418, but
completely wipe out the whole dish at 500 mkg/ml. There is a very
narrow window in between, in which you'll get nice colonies.
Anyway, to make a long story short: yes, U87 are just strange and
don't quite behave the same way as other GBM lines.
Good luck with your studies,
Leman